Social Responsibility

Modern slavery awareness event

Wed, 13 Jun 2018 15:58:00 BST

The University, in conjunction with colleagues from Greater Manchester’s Programme Challenger and Stop the Traffik, hosted a successful event on 15 May as part of the National Crime Agency Week (14-18 May 2018) on Forced Labour.

Modern Slavery is an international crime affecting millions of people regardless of age, gender or ethnicity, in developed and developing countries. In this country victims include people trafficked from overseas, or vulnerable people from the UK who are forced to work illegally or against their will. The aim of the event was to raise awareness of the issue and share experiences with our construction supply chain.

The session was hosted by Julian Skyrme and focussed on the Manchester context and the University's response. University colleagues were joined by representatives from our construction supply chain who heard speakers from the University, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and a University construction contractor. This was followed by an opportunity to share experiences and network with other attendees.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and included:

‘Really well put together with a good spectrum of speakers.’

‘It was an eye opener. I wondered what impact this had on me but that was made clear during the event and opened up opportunities for my unit to assist.’

This event is one of a number of actions to support the University’s zero tolerance approach to modern slavery and human trafficking.